hey deb,
I got a Bargman trailer light harness and junction box from vintage trailer supply. I still wired it for trailer brakes and trailer battery charge since I could. yes pex water lines are the way to go. I used the brass quick connectors with no problems. I also put all new 1/2" copper propane lines (same size as original) in with custom flexible pieces for the fridge and stove. a good local shop can make those for you. I look forward to seeing your pics.

Today we really looked that frame over and did a lot of discussing of what to do, the final outcome was that she's getting a new frame! We ordered some of the stock and will pick up the pieces in the morning........the frame building begins tomorrow. My DH thinks if all goes well, they should have the new frame completed by sometime Thursday. I guess I'll have the job of painting the frame with the POR-15.

The marine grade plywood came in and tomorrow I'll start coating that, top and bottom, with the marine grade polyurethane.

This morning we picked up the new belly pan aluminum and some 18-gauge for odds and ends. New exterior skin is to be delivered on Friday.

I tried to become a Supporting Member tonight, but had issues -- we don't use Paypal and I didn't see another way to pay for that. Also, I tried to upload a few pics, but for some reason those didn't go through. I thought I had read that I may be able to post a few pics without being a Supporting Member, but obviously not. After I hear back about how to proceed, we'll be in good shape.

Ted, thanks for the information regarding the wiring harness, wiring, water lines, propane lines, etc. Wow, there's so much to plan and make certain things are completed in the correct order!

I don't think I've asked this before, so here goes..............what has everyone used to wash down the skins to dissinfect them?

Oh, I also have to start stripping the interior skins of the zolatone. I think I read on Shelly's thread that she came up with something less harsh -- in the citrus line? I'll have to go back and reread her postings.

I think we'll pick up the insulation tomorrow morning too. We also discussed all three tanks, again, and made a decision on which to go with, now we just have to get those ordered.

About your axles....if you order through Colin H, you can pick them up in Elkhart, IN & save the shipping costs. I think he is exclusive for axis axles now. And, of course, while in Elkhart you can visit all the RV surplus stores!

Yes, we have decided to go through Colin Hyde for our axle, my DH talked with him again late this afternoon and I think Colin said he was going to try to place the order yet today, but I'm not entirely certain about that as I didn't speak with him.

You and I must think alike, that is exactly what I told my DH that I could do while picking up the axle. Could you elaborate more on ones that you know of besides Bertrangers (I think is misspelled their name), which would be rather close to Axis? I called them about belly pan aluminum; at this time they didn't have any, but we found some kind of local here for a good price.

Just google Elkhart RV surplus stores. I had more luck at the RV Surplus & Salvage store. I got my fridge there & the fresh water tank & the propane set up for the tongue. If you're making your own cabinets, Bontrager's has some nice lumber sometimes. I wish I had gotten more maple while I was there! The Factory RV Surplus has a building that's set back from the store (at least I think it's associated with that place) that had some cooktops & vents IIRC. It was a couple of years ago that I was there! I've had a stockpile of stuff under my pool table for my project & it's finally about all gone. Takes a lot of planning, that's for sure!

As you can see, we became a "Supporting Member", so we should be good to go with pics, let's see if I can do this.

If these download correctly, I think they are in this order:

1) Lily (aka Little Girl) on her way to her new home, approx. 1 1/2yrs. ago.
2 & 3) Pics of her old frame, I don't know if you'll be able to see all of the bad places.
4) Lily's shell resting on stands while the new frame is being built, etc.

The welding on the new frame has been completed and the sub-floor is being bolted onto it this afternoon. After that, I think they are going to turn it upside down to run the wiring for the trailer brakes, install new stainless steel gray tank, insulate, and anything else which is needed. Since we have all new steel in the frame, we decided not to use POR-15 and went with a coat of frame primer and a final coat of tractor paint. They reworked the step so it is sturdier and works much more smoothly. After all the underneath work has been completed, the new belly pan will be installed. Oh, they also welded on a new hitch.

We are picking up some stainless steel tomorrow morning, and my DH is going to fabricate and weld our gray and black tanks to fit our available spaces.

As I think I stated before, we ordered a new axle through Colin Hyde, who was wonderful to work with, and I think it should be delivered in around three weeks or so. We upgraded it to a 3500lb. axle due to various reasons, and will be able to use either 15" or 16" tires; we are fabricating new wheelwells, and I think they are going to be stainless steel too.

I was reading on the internet about Prodex, and I noticed that they have
a new one which has more RV value, I think about twice as much, I really forget now (they called it something or other "10" instead of "5"). Does anyone know anything about this new one and whether or not it should be okay to use on our AS?

I read that Shelly used Citristrip, so I picked up a jug and am going to try stripping the zolatone off of one of the panels -- if it works as well for me as it did Shelly, we'll pick up some more. They didn't have any plastic razor blades, but I did pick up plastic putty knives, so we'll see how that goes.

The new exterior skin aluminum did arrive a couple of hours ago, so we have that to use when needed.

We have been moving along fairly well this week, but everyone has to go back to work next week, so we will slow down considerably then.

Please speak up if any of you know of something we are forgetting.........we are new to renovating Airstreams, so we'd really appreciate a heads up.

I think that is all for now. The camera is supposed to come home with DH tonight, if so, I'll attach pics of the new frame, etc.

I read that Shelly used Citristrip, so I picked up a jug and am going to try stripping the zolatone off of one of the panels -- if it works as well for me as it did Shelly, we'll pick up some more. They didn't have any plastic razor blades, but I did pick up plastic putty knives, so we'll see how that goes.

Deb

Wow! Your moving fast! Looking great. I did try plastic putty knives, they don't have a sharp enough edge and the stripper will make the plastic soften pretty fast, then they are useless. It's key to keep changing the blade, that's going to get expensive with putty knives.

You won't find plastic razor blades locally, no one even knows what they are, have them shipped from amazon, trust me you'll be using them for everything!

Well, more has been done to our frame.........our friend placed a stainless steel sheet under the new subfloor where the step is to seal that area up; used the template we made of the inside of the floor prior to lifting off the shell, plus did a recheck with cording and ended up marking and cutting the shape around both ends (how much that brings the project together, giving her the shape back makes it seem real!) and brushed a coat of marine polyeurathane along the "C" channel edge to seal that; aluminum was placed around the wheelwell openings to seal off the plywood subfloor there too. He also cut and shaped the new (heavier than original) "C" channel and attached that to the new subfloor.

Then, 2x4's were cut, stacked, and anchored in place so that they could turn the frame over without damaging the new "C" channel, now they're working on the underside of the frame. To make the turning of the frame doable for two men, our friend welded onto where the bumper will be replaced, a piece of leftover box tubing with a round piece (looks like part of a leftover drive shaft tube) onto that box tubing. When they wanted to turn it over, they simply used an engine lifter on one end and a Bobcat on the other, walla -- belly side up! Easy for me to say, I wasn't there, so I'm certain they were a little nervous thinking of what could happen.

Last week, they had the gray tank material (stainless steel) bent to shape, and today my DH started welding it together, but rain out of Argon, so he'll have to finish it another day.

DH picked up insulation at HD last night -- we are using Reflectex and R-13 unfaced insulation. Today I picked up the trailer brake wiring and the wire and plug which will be the trailer whip plug (plugs into the back of the TV). After wiring has been ran and insulation has been cut to shape, the underside of the frame will be painted, dried, and insulation put in place. And, I think after that the belly pan goes on, if I'm not mistaken.

Please, someone speak up if we're forgetting something here.

Tomorrow I'm planning to try the CitriStrip on one of the interior skins to see how easily the Zolatone and other paint come off -- let's hope relatively easy.

We have some more pics to post here. Hope everyone's having a great weekend.

WOW you're making great progress!
I found that the citristrip worked well for me but you gotta be a bit more patient than with other strippers. Painted it on in the evening then went back the next day and it scraped right off.
To keep your plastic putty knives sharp I stapled a piece of fine grit sandpaper arount a small wood block ala sanding block and simply 'resharpened' as needed- worked well for me.
good luck, the stripping is one of the nastier jobs you will encounter, especially working overhead.
tim

Rumrunner -- Thanks for the tips on the CitriStrip; we have our first coat on and just waiting until time to start removing. I'm going to try your method of sanding the plastic putty knives, and if that doesn't work for me, I'll have to give in and order those plastic razor blades which Shelly used -- I just hate to wait on deliveries, waiting is a killer!

Fortunately for me, I'm hoping I don't have to do overhead removal of the paint from the skins since we're planning to remove all interior skins to remove the old insulation and replace with new. At least that is the plan as it stands now, but you never know..........

Alphonse -- You are quite welcome regarding our posting of our restoration, we're trying to pay back a little from all of the help/inspiration we've received from others here on AirForums. These people are all just the greatest. If you do one, we'll follow your thread along too.

Thanks to both of you for your compliments and for taking the time to follow our thread. I am in the planning stages for the interior, but first we need to get the belly pan and shell back on. Can't wait until we're pulling out the first time we go camping with her!!

One other thing, I can't remember now if I stated this before, I think I did, but, anyway here goes (again?) -- while building the new frame we increased the size of the wheelwells by around 2" hoping that will allow us to use 16" wheels/tires. The new axle (we purchased through Colin H.) is due to arrive sometime in a couple of weeks, and once it gets mounted, we are going to try our spare wheel/tire from our '99 Safari which happens to be 16" to see if it fits and check out clearances. We're thinking we'll be very fortunate if it does fit as then we will have less stress running down the highway not having to worry about blowouts as much (Michelins), and we'll only have to have one spare for the two AS's since we'll be running the same size on both.

I'm attaching one pic this time, I went back out to the barn/shop to check on the inner skin with the CitriStrip and took a pic. I'm guessing it had been on around 2-3hrs.; left side is just Zolatone and the right looks like someone painted over the Zolatone with some type of paint. Anyway, right after I took this pic, I used the corner of a small plastic putty knife to see if it was doing anything and to our surprise, the Zolatone side scraped clean to the aluminum without any pressure, but the side with the paint on top of the Zolatone took more pressure. We are leaving it to set overnight.

Update on CitriStrip/Zolatone removal...............I went out this afternoon to remove the CitrisStrip. The side with the paint over the Zolatone looked dried, but came off with a little pressure; the side with just the Zolatone/CitriStrip was still wet, and was a little sloppy coming off, but seemed to take it off to the same level as the other side. It looks as though there could still be one layer of paint on there. After scraping, I used clean cleaning clothes which I wet in a bucket of warm water to get the remainder off and hopefully stop any chemical reaction which might occur from its being on the aluminum. While wiping, I noticed that on the side with just the CitriStrip over the Zolatone, if I rubbed more and got it rather wet, it came off down to the aluminum. It was cold out in the shop, was late and I didn't want to start a fire that late so I'll have to leave the removal to another day.

I'm wondering, does anyone know if it would be okay to wet wipe this down with a "0000" steel wool pad, or should it be "0000" aluminum pad? I think 4 ought is the finest it comes, isn't it?